Supporters 'moving on' to Hawkeye state after candidate misses debate

Republican presidential candidate, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, speaks at the Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa,July 18 during his campaign.
As next month's first GOP 2016 presidential debate looms, prospects are doing everything they can to improve their polling and chin themselves into a top 10 position to meet the criteria set by Fox News Channel to appear on stage Aug. 6 in Cleveland. Perry is waging a one-man war on Donald Trump's credibility, calling the bombastic billionaire "a cancer on conservatism." Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, a conservative icon, popped up on a favorite program of liberals, the Rachel Maddow Show. And South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham set his phone on fire. (AP Photo/Nati Harnik, File)

Photo: Nati Harnik, STF

AUSTIN - Rick Perry's face has splashed on television screens across Iowa in more than 4,000 spots over the last two months, according to federal records, as part of a nearly $1.8 million ad blitz by a super PAC supporting his presidential run.

The television spots, however, failed to boost the former Texas governor into the lineup for Thursday's main debate among Republican presidential hopefuls, casting a shadow on his comeback effort after a dismal run for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination.

But the pro-Perry super PAC, which has reported raising $17 million so far, is moving forward. And it's not alone in trying to set an early aggressive tone by spending big on ads months before voters anywhere in the country cast their first ballots in caucuses or primaries. The Iowa caucus, the first showdown, is Feb.1 followed by the New Hampshire primary on Feb. 9.

Outside groups supporting GOP contenders for the White House spent nearly $7 million in June and July for television time and ad production, Federal Election Commission records show, a harbinger for what's expected to be the most expensive TV ad war in presidential campaign history.

And the early spending is just the tip of the iceberg: The super PACs for the major GOP candidates reported last month they've so far collectively raised more than $200 million. Just this week, a super PAC supporting U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-TX, called Keep the Promise launched its first Internet ads and said it was readying to spend millions on TV spots through the end of the year.

'It's one night'

A hefty portion of the reported spending for TV ads through the first week of August thus far came on behalf of three on-the-cusp candidates - Perry and Govs. Chris Christie and Bobby Jindal – who were trying to boost their poll numbers to claw their way into one of the 10 slots allocated for Thursday's main debate. Only Christie succeeded.

While acknowledging the disappointment of missing that forum, Perry backers said the long view is what's important in assessing their efforts.

"It's one night. It's August. The first votes aren't cast until Feb. 1," said Jordan Russell, spokesman for the pro-Perry Opportunity and Freedom PAC. "We're not going to light our hair on fire. We are confident that we are making good progress in the early states and we're just going to keep focused on that."

However, this one night is of outsize importance for GOP candidates struggling to make themselves heard in a crowded field dominated by the incendiary statements of mogul Donald Trump, whose lead in the polls is causing consternation among establishment Republicans.

Trump's presence is expected to drive up viewership of the top-tier candidate debate. The hopefuls who miss the mark are relegated to a separate, earlier debate.

Thousands of ads

For the pro-Perry super PAC, the TV strategy has mostly boiled down to one state: Iowa. Aside from a $500,000 national cable buy last month, every penny so far for television spots has been directed to the Hawkeye state, resulting in an early flood of Perry-featured TV ads ahead of Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucus. Federal Communications Commission records show the Super PAC ran nearly 4,100 television spots on broadcast stations in Cedar Rapids and Des Moines between the first week of June and mid July.

Some of the ads produced and released by the pro-Perry super PAC highlight the former governor's humble upbringing in a small Texas town, his job creation record while running the state and his border security bona fides - all tenets of his long-shot run for the White House.

Russell, a spokesman for the super PAC, said it's all part of the plan to play Perry big in Iowa.

"The primary focus has been and will continue to be on Iowa and the other early states," Russell said. "I think it's been very effective. Gov. Perry consistently has very high favorability ratings in Iowa. We've seen those go up since we started our advertising campaign there."

'We're moving on'

Steffen Schmidt, professor of political science at Iowa State University, said Perry "has a problem with having to be a comeback kid from the last contest," which was defined by him uttering "oops" during a debate when he could remember only two of three federal entities he wanted to shut down.

Schmidt said many also think Perry's camp has fallen short "when it comes to running powerful and informative ads simple to understand about job creation in Texas, border security and other issues where he could make a case."

Russell said the pro-Perry super PAC is seeing results for its money.

The effort to make the main debate was part of the reason, but not the only reason, for a national cable buy that was primarily on Fox News, Russell said.

"We're still re-introducing Gov. Perry to voters across the country," he said. "We don't have any regrets about making the effort. Obviously we wish we had been half a point higher in the polls and made the first debate, but we're moving on."